Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/paper-2/5/solution

The fundamental theorem of calculus gives , so the graph is strictly increasing. Its second derivative is : it curves upward for and downward for , with an inflection point at zero.
By the Gaussian integral and the evenness of its integrand,
Thus the only axis intersection is ; there is no finite -axis intersection because the integral is strictly positive for every finite . The error function gives .
Figure 1.
The increasing integral of a Gaussian
. The graph has its only axis intersection and its inflection point at . The horizontal lines at zero and are asymptotes. Details.

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